# 31 Day Challenge / Mani Marathon 2014 (#31DC2014)



## Monika1 (Sep 12, 2014)

This September marked the start of the 31 Day Challenge 2014 for many polish lovers. Last year we had two threads - one for those who aim to do the entire challenge in September, one mani a day; and another for those who take it at a slower pace. I hope that we can share our Challenge manis here no matter the pace. _(I know there will be a lot of great images to be posted by those who have already started, yay!)_ The concept of the Challenge is to encourage us to enjoy and develop our skills by working through 31 themed manis: in colours, patterns, and inspired by specific ideas. I look forward to enjoying the amazing ideas of this group here; and hope we can motivate each other to try it, especially for those for whom it's the first time, and to make it through all 31 manis!:





Thanks to Sarah from Chalkboard Nails for this summarizing chart graphic.

I'm really enthusiastic about having those who don't or haven't yet 'done nail art' involved! Why not post the first eight manis and see where it takes you? No experience is required to participate!


----------



## Christa W (Sep 13, 2014)

I've been posting my challenge manicures in the "What are you wearing now" thread and I will update them in here is anyone is interested.  Day 13 is animal print.  Last year I did an awesome caterpillar and this year I found it a bit harder to come up with something.  I settled on the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog.  I used a bunch of OPI textured polishes.  For the "legs" I started off with OPI Wharf! Wharf! Wharf then sponged on Zoya Charla and OPI Alcatraz...Rocks!  I used OPI Magazine Cover Mouse and OPI Jinx sponged on for the "body" and then SInfulShine Dark Room for the dots.







Overall I do like how it turned out.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 13, 2014)

Christa W said:


> I've been posting my challenge manicures in the "What are you wearing now" thread and I will update them in here is anyone is interested.  Day 13 is animal print.  Last year I did an awesome caterpillar and this year I found it a bit harder to come up with something.  I settled on the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog.  I used a bunch of OPI textured polishes.  For the "legs" I started off with OPI Wharf! Wharf! Wharf then sponged on Zoya Charla and OPI Alcatraz...Rocks!  I used OPI Magazine Cover Mouse and OPI Jinx sponged on for the "body" and then SInfulShine Dark Room for the dots.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What a cute idea! Thanks for the company here.  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 13, 2014)

*Colour #1... Red*:

Here I have a base of Red Carpet Manicure Camera Shy - much more sheer than I expected for three reasonably generous coats! - with rose and heart lace stamping from image plate Pueen27 in Konad Cool Red.





In the first photo you can also see just a bit of staining on Camera Shy as I first did a mani with the teal OPI sheer tint on it. It was very apparent pre-stamping, but the red works really well to distract from it!


----------



## Christa W (Sep 14, 2014)

Monika1 said:


> *Colour #1... Red*:
> 
> Here I have a base of Red Carpet Manicure Camera Shy - much more sheer than I expected for three reasonably generous coats! - with rose and heart lace stamping from image plate Pueen27 in Konad Cool Red.
> 
> ...


I've always wanted to do lace stamping.  I think your choice of red is phenomenal.  I love this!!


----------



## Christa W (Sep 14, 2014)

Day 14 is flowers.  I am not a flower girl at all.  In fact I am not really girlie and despite admiring other peoples more feminine nail art I don't tend to do it myself.  This made this a challenge for me.  I wanted to do something Guns N' Roses or even the fire flower from Super Mario but I chose to do something that's been on my "want to do" list for a few.  This is OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around and stamped Kleancolor Black using Plate Fun 3.  I did a glue base around my nails because I am tired of stamping that black on my fingers and having so much cleanup.  There is a little but not as bad as normal.  I used the leadlight stamping technique and colored in all my flowers.  I used all 4 OPI Sheer Tints and the L'Oreal Miss Candy collection from last year.  (there was too many to list!!)  I really don't like how the OPI sheer tints get gummy and stringy.  The L'Oreal polishes do not.  I much prefer them to be honest.  I don't have any of the Sally Hansen Triple Shine Jellies.  I saw them at Target on clearance but I am on a super no buy for awhile and had to pass.


----------



## JC327 (Sep 15, 2014)

/monthly_09_2014/post-93517-0-56862200-1410724858_thumb.jpg 

Nailtini in Mai Tai that I received from my awesome FGM @bellatrix42 topped with L'oreal top coat confetti in splash peach.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 15, 2014)

Christa W said:


> I've always wanted to do lace stamping.  I think your choice of red is phenomenal.  I love this!!


Thank-you! I thought the vnl might bother me, but this pattern is fairly dense, so I ended up really enjoying wearing it too. I think whether I would be happy with vnl could be dependent on placement for me if the stamping pattern was more sparse. I had intended to use the gel base as a way of reducing vnl but it turned out the base was quite sheer. It would work well also with a nude-toned opaque polish base for anyone who avoids vnl, but in this case I actually liked the 'true sheer' effect.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 15, 2014)

Christa W said:


> Day 14 is flowers.  I am not a flower girl at all.  In fact I am not really girlie and despite admiring other peoples more feminine nail art I don't tend to do it myself.  This made this a challenge for me.  I wanted to do something Guns N' Roses or even the fire flower from Super Mario but I chose to do something that's been on my "want to do" list for a few.  This is OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around and stamped Kleancolor Black using Plate Fun 3.  I did a glue base around my nails because I am tired of stamping that black on my fingers and having so much cleanup.  There is a little but not as bad as normal.  I used the leadlight stamping technique and colored in all my flowers.  I used all 4 OPI Sheer Tints and the L'Oreal Miss Candy collection from last year.  (there was too many to list!!)  I really don't like how the OPI sheer tints get gummy and stringy.  The L'Oreal polishes do not.  I much prefer them to be honest.  I don't have any of the Sally Hansen Triple Shine Jellies.  I saw them at Target on clearance but I am on a super no buy for awhile and had to pass.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I like it! The OPI base is gorgeous, and I also really like the simpler (well not particularly simple, but gorgeous!) look pre-leadlight. It's very elegant that way, and doesn't come across as girlie to me. With the sheer tints, etc. it's very festive (it almost gives me the ethnic Mexican pattern feel), and the alternating of the stamping direction is a great idea. With the variation in colour, and the different strategies for filling the same pattern on different fingers, it ends up looking like you have a whole bunch of different flower stamps that are super-unified in style.


----------



## JC327 (Sep 15, 2014)

Orange nails:

Gradient using L'oreal wishful pinking, L'oreal boozy brunch and topped with Essence sparkle + sand top coat.

First pic before top coat.
/monthly_09_2014/post-93517-0-24766700-1410829885_thumb.jpg

Second pic with top coat.
/monthly_09_2014/post-93517-0-18064300-1410829943_thumb.jpg


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 15, 2014)

*Colour #2... Orange*:

Here are my 'before' and 'after' pics for this mani. The orange colours were so exciting and vibrant I enjoyed wearing them pre-stamping too, and could have very well left it at that. The base colours are Cult Nails Swanbourne; Zoya Myrta, Channing, and Penny; and Nubar Jewel. But I was in an 'owl' mood, and just got the Messy Mansion owl plate. The index finger has the Nfu Oh 59 flakie on it, but the overall effect of it in photos was just to make the colour look more similar to that on the middle finger, oh well (you can see the change from unstamped to stamped). The flakies glittered nicely in the sun. I used China Glaze You're A Hoot on the 'feather' stamped nail. The textured stamping (MM #38) with Zoya Ziv and Penny on CN Swanbourne (thumbs, minus the orange tree) would make a great mani in itself. Too many ideas for the future...


----------



## Christa W (Sep 15, 2014)

Day 15 is delicate nails and just like flowers this really pushed me.  It took all day going back and forth before I decided on using some of my Maybelline Color Show Nail Tattoos I picked up at Dollar Tree.  They are by far the best water decals I have used (having never ordered any from BPS).  I think my favorite is the fortune cookie.  I used them over China Glaze Pelican Gray.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 15, 2014)

JC327 said:


> Orange nails:
> 
> Gradient using L'oreal wishful pinking, L'oreal boozy brunch and topped with Essence sparkle + sand top coat.
> 
> ...


Double-duty is exactly what I had in mind too! I think I'll be doing it here and there.  Wishful Pinking looks really pretty and I enjoy the dramatic gradient. I often think of adding a glitter and second-guess it just because I'm not in the mood to remove it. :blush: Sad reason to miss out on the glitter... I need to find some peel-off stuff!


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 15, 2014)

Christa W said:


> Day 15 is delicate nails and just like flowers this really pushed me.  It took all day going back and forth before I decided on using some of my Maybelline Color Show Nail Tatoos I picked up at Dollar Tree.  They are by far the best water decals I have used (having never ordered any from BPS).  I think my favorite is the fortune cookie.  I used them over China Glaze Pelican Gray.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Just amazing! I really like how this looks with the grey. My favourite are the flowers - if pressed, probably the red and white one. This really is a beautiful and delicate success. So sorry you'll take it off soon.


----------



## Christa W (Sep 15, 2014)

Monika1 said:


> Just amazing! I really like how this looks with the grey. My favourite are the flowers - if pressed, probably the red and white one. This really is a beautiful and delicate success. So sorry you'll take it off soon.[/quoteI
> 
> Omg me too!!! I did gray because I did the beige-ish color yesterday and I didn't want to do white again. I'm going to Dollar Tree to buy more. These last long. I don't want to take them off!!! There's so many adorable designs on this one sheet too!!!


----------



## Christa W (Sep 16, 2014)

Having a miserable mani day.  I tried to do some creative things and it failed miserably.  I ended up with this design that I am embarrassed to show.  Please excuse the excessively dry cuticles.  I didn't realize they were this bad and I had already taken it off.




Sally Hansen Insta-Dry in Coastin' By with Konad White stamped with Bundle Monster BM410


----------



## Christa W (Sep 17, 2014)

Glitter day I used Laquerlicious Bling-A-Ling. I got 2 bottles when I ordered since she changed the formula and this one wasn't being continued. I love them both. I used OPI 4 In the Morning then stamped Bundle Monster BM 009 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep then topped the diamonds in China Glaze Fairy Dust


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 18, 2014)

Christa W said:


> Having a miserable mani day.  I tried to do some creative things and it failed miserably.  I ended up with this design that I am embarrassed to show.  Please excuse the excessively dry cuticles.  I didn't realize they were this bad and I had already taken it off.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Aww, I wouldn't be so down on this one. It's a nice exploration into the soft effect of white on a grey base, and the photo does fit nine of my nails per single your nail on the pic, so the magnification is working against you vs real life!


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 18, 2014)

Christa W said:


> Glitter day I used Laquerlicious Bling-A-Ling. I got 2 bottles when I ordered since she changed the formula and this one wasn't being continued. I love them both. I used OPI 4 In the Morning then stamped Bundle Monster BM 009 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep then topped the diamonds in China Glaze Fairy Dust
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Multi-way tie-in with the glitter idea.. neat! The textured effect of the Laquerlicious reminds me a bit of Essie Belugaria, which I only bought because you said you loved it. I love it too! I'm really glad I ended up getting that set, actually, and here it's me, the one who said she didn't like glitters much. I think that's changing, though I still use creams the most. I'm amazed by you and others who can post daily with this. That many manis is incredible!


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 18, 2014)

*Colour #3... Yellow:*

Here is my next one for this challenge. It's Nubar Lemon with toppings of Kiwi, Blueberry; China Glaze Sun Worshiper (I just think of that neon cheesy macaroni product!); Cult Nails Time Traveller; and Essie Naughty Nautical.




I tried to get it true to colour, but the yellow base is much brighter.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 21, 2014)

*Colour #4... Green*:

This is a base of Zoya Hunter and accent nail Color Club This Is Tree-mendous with some stamping from the Pueen 52 plate with Konad Pop Green and Coral Blue. Tree-mendous is my favourite aspect of this, I think.


----------



## Christa W (Sep 22, 2014)

Monika1 said:


> *Colour #4... Green*:
> 
> This is a base of Zoya Hunter and accent nail Color Club This Is Tree-mendous with some stamping from the Pueen 52 plate with Konad Pop Green and Coral Blue. Tree-mendous is my favourite aspect of this, I think.
> 
> ...


I love Hunter very much.  I love the choice of stamping colors.  It looks very cool.


----------



## Christa W (Sep 22, 2014)

I got lazy and haven't posted my last few mani's.  I've done them all so far and on the day of so I am happy with my progress.

Here are the ones I have done




Half moons.  Used L'Oreal stickers.  They curved and got all icky so I blurred the pic.(on IG not here unfortunately you can see how bad it was)




Galaxies were Guardians of the Galaxy complete with Awesome Mix Vol 1 and Star Lord mask.  I used Rainbow Honey Asteroid B over Zoya Payton for the galaxy design.  Asteroid B is pretty much a galaxy in a bottle I love it.  I used acrylic paints for the mask and the stamping didn't exactly work out what was in my mind but again I did these all on the day I was supposed to have posted so I ran out of time.




Watermarble using some Essie.  I wish I would have just used the blue and green.  Of course to try and salvage it I used China Glaze Fairy Dust




Based on a color... I did a coloring book and crayons




Favorite nails of the challenge so far it's inspired by a song... Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop"


----------



## allen john (Sep 24, 2014)

I used all 4 OPI Sheer Tints and the L'Oreal Miss Candy collection from last year.  (there was too many to list!!)  I really don't like how the OPI sheer tints get gummy and stringy.  The L'Oreal polishes do not.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 24, 2014)

Christa W said:


> I love Hunter very much.  I love the choice of stamping colors.  It looks very cool.


Thanks! I like seeing Hunter in the photo; it seems really flattering. But when I wore it hubby thought it was black and didn't like it. I have to wear more really deep colours this fall so he gets accustomed to them or something... but I guess in a way they don't totally suit my personality, so I understand that part. I think they completely work for me when I've stamped or varied them in some way, but I do have the sense that a really deep colour unadorned on me is more 'edgy' than I am.  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Oh, and I tried doing a bit of a duo-colour on my thumb... it sort of worked, but looks a bit inadvertent. I have to try that again.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 25, 2014)

Christa W said:


> I got lazy and haven't posted my last few mani's.  I've done them all so far and on the day of so I am happy with my progress.
> 
> Here are the ones I have done
> 
> ...


They're all so impressive; it's amazing the amount of detail you can get with the hand-painting! I really love the crayon/colouring book mani with the wrapper and crayon end colours so wonderfully matched! I like the water marble mani with the colours as they are, though I would likely enjoy it with two colours too. And the half moon stickers - they look so sharp! I don't find the wee wrinkles very distracting.


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 25, 2014)

*Colour #5... Blue:*

This is my blue (dusky turquoise?). I used Cult Nails Let Me Fly, a brush with Zoya Flynn, and Jenna Hipp Flair Your Affair just using the brush in the bottle. This platinum glitter showed more than it appears on the camera, so I'm showing a slightly fuzzy shot too to try to show the effect a bit more. This was a really nice mani to wear, though the gel base needed changing. So it's gone and I did that - I wore a very sheer pink-nude out in public just now as I didn't have time to do anything more than put on the new gel mani!


----------



## Monika1 (Sep 26, 2014)

*Colour #6... Violet:*

I did my lavendar/purple nails with Zoya Stevie PixieDust and haven't topped it as I enjoy the rough matte texture, though it doesn't photograph as well for nail art. I stamped it with Zoya Carly and the LilyAnna LA#15 image plate (row 2, column 6). Carly - wow! Amazing for stamping; the plate - also wow! It was my first use of the plate, and you can use it over and over without cleaning out the polish as the engraving is deep enough for that, and you actually get a more solid image if the plate has been used a few times ('clogged' with a bit of polish), hence the bolder stamps on the left hand, which I did second. A bit of growing pains on the first one too... I also used a squishy stamper instead of my Konad stamper for the first time, and a plastic scraper instead of my typical metal one and it worked nicely for this combination.


----------



## Christa W (Oct 5, 2014)

I finished the challenge and it feels incredible.  I managed to do each one every day.  Here are the ones I didn't post yet.

Inspired by a movie.  I did the Veggie Tales Jonah.  I promised my mom I would do the pirates who don't do anything.




Inspired by a book nails were by the upcoming Sophie Kinsella novel Shopaholic to the Stars.




Inspired by fashion I used my purse.




Inspired by a pattern. I did chevron stamping.  This one was on an existing mani.




Inspired by artwork  I chose Marsden Hartley Portrait of a German Officer.




My last year attempt at the same design.




My 2014 updated version.




Inspired by a flag used the city flag for Chicago.




Supernatural is when pigs fly.




Tutorial.  I wasn't inspired by any tutorial so I did my own.




And finally nails that you love.  I recreated the nails Meghan Trainor had on in the video for All About the Base.  I used the Nicole by OPI Rougles to do it.


----------



## Monika1 (Oct 6, 2014)

Christa W said:


> I finished the challenge and it feels incredible.  I managed to do each one every day.  Here are the ones I didn't post yet.
> 
> Inspired by a movie.  I did the Veggie Tales Jonah.  I promised my mom I would do the pirates who don't do anything.
> 
> ...


Yay! Congratulations; that is really impressive! I love your tutorial,  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> fashion inspired by your purse, and nails you love Roughles manis especially! I'm still slowly plugging along on this - I'll have to post a few soon. But it's fun to have a specific reason to use certain polishes.


----------



## Christa W (Oct 6, 2014)

Monika1 said:


> Yay! Congratulations; that is really impressive! I love your tutorial,  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> fashion inspired by your purse, and nails you love Roughles manis especially! I'm still slowly plugging along on this - I'll have to post a few soon. But it's fun to have a specific reason to use certain polishes.


I'm proud of myself for trying to use different polishes each time too.  I didn't always work that way but I have been on a no buy for like 2 months and it was nice having a reason to use a lot of untrieds and polishes I may have only used once or twice before.


----------



## Monika1 (Oct 7, 2014)

Christa W said:


> I'm proud of myself for trying to use different polishes each time too.  I didn't always work that way but I have been on a no buy for like 2 months and it was nice having a reason to use a lot of untrieds and polishes I may have only used once or twice before.


That is great! I am impressed with your self-control on the no-buy; you're doing fantastically with that, and shopping from your own stash is great! The new collections are always so tempting; but the general reality is that you'll (I'll/many of us will) have something fairly similar most of the time. I should make it a goal to use the untrieds in the rest of this challenge. Sometimes I end up using polishes I've used many times before only because I think of them since I have experience with what they look like; they come to mind when I'm sorting through ideas for the theme. I also have not created swatches for my polishes - I'd have to consult the list, sort through the box, or look them up online.


----------



## Monika1 (Oct 7, 2014)

*Colour #7... Black &amp; White:*

For this one I started with a mix of the _'colours'_*:* grey. I wore Zoya London matte for a while and then, as the tips were wearing, fixed it with the charcoal Dahlia on the tips and in a quick gradient. As I created it using a sponge only with Dahlia, it's not as smooth a gradient as I could achieve with both colours on the sponge, but it fixed the tips, quickly.  I stamped it with the left gear system on the Messy Mansion MM #43 plate. I found that the fine large gear at the bottom was very hard to get, though I did a few times. I think it would be better if it was engraved a bit deeper; but as it is possible to get, kinda sorta, occasionally, do we call it user error? I was using Konad White, which should work fairly well, with the Konad two-ended stamper, which is fairly reliable for me, but I'm not a pro at this. Suggestions are welcome. I enjoyed the result with or without... but the gears make much more sense with.


----------



## Monika1 (Oct 8, 2014)

Thanks Christa!


----------



## Monika1 (Oct 8, 2014)

*Colour #8... Metallic:*

For this one I used metallic colours but then stamped them with things that often contain metal or are constructed with metal. Many colours and many stamps, but I'm absolutely loving Essie Hors D'Oeuvres, the super bright glittery silver.


----------



## Monika1 (Oct 15, 2014)

*Colour #9... Rainbow:*

The fun thing is that this mani could arguably be 9 - rainbow, 10 - gradient ('left' to 'right'), 11 - polka dot, and 12 - stripes (of polka dots). Of course that defeats the purpose of having a list of 31 manis. I did do a bit of clean-up despite wear on the tips, so here they are.


----------



## Monika1 (Nov 16, 2014)

*Colours #10... Gradient:*

I feel I haven't used my browns to full effect this autumn, so I decided to use them for this gradient and then had a really hard time deciding which ones to use. I have another combination in mind that I'm quite excited to see too. This is Nubar Edgy Umber, Cult Nails Tulum, and LynBDesigns Fishing With No Bait. Though I seem to recall it might be better to use the lightest colour first to paint the whole nail and then sponge on the other colours, I did the opposite. I wore Edgy Umber alone first. A handy short-cut I like to use on the gradient is to paint (messy) bands on the nail in advance of painting them on the sponge and dabbing a few layers, drying in between, to create the gradient. That way I got away with the darkest colour base without having to do more sponged layers to get the lighter colours to show.


----------



## Monika1 (Nov 19, 2014)

*Style #11... Polka Dots:*

I was inspired when I saw Zoya Hazel worn by @@JC327 with some nail art on thread lately. It looked so gorgeous I wanted to be sure to wear it soon. That was September; I guess soon is all relative. I also really like the Frozen-inspired one by @jessrose18. It's purely coincidental we both used Over The Moon with it; I guess they're made to be together! Here Zoya Hazel is the base; the first blue dots are OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I used Color Club Over The Moon for the other 'first dots'.





Then I played around some more with a dotting tool and did double-dots with black and white.


----------



## Monika1 (Nov 21, 2014)

*Style #12... Lines:*

Well, lines never insist on being straight, so I stamped on some wavy, squiggly chevron-like lines instead. Thjs is Zoya Odette base and a Zoya Kissy accent nail with lines using Mundo de Unas Copper and Old Pink, and the CZ07 image plate.


----------



## JC327 (Nov 21, 2014)

Monika1 said:


> *Style #11... Polka Dots:*
> 
> I was inspired when I saw Zoya Hazel worn by @@JC327 with some nail art on thread lately. It looked so gorgeous I wanted to be sure to wear it soon. That was September; I guess soon is all relative. I also really like the Frozen-inspired one by @jessrose18. It's purely coincidental we both used Over The Moon with it; I guess they're made to be together! Here Zoya Hazel is the base; the first blue dots are OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. I used Color Club Over The Moon for the other 'first dots'.
> 
> ...


In love with that mani those dots are perfection! Glad I was able to inspire you.


----------



## Monika1 (Nov 21, 2014)

JC327 said:


> In love with that mani those dots are perfection! Glad I was able to inspire you.


Thanks! Dotting tools (or pins, toothpicks, etc.) are such great things for creating neat manis.  /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />


----------



## Monika1 (Nov 28, 2014)

*Style #13... Animal Print:*

For this one I used Zoya Cheryl - what a beautiful rich but cool-skintone-friendly brown (in my mind anyway, due to the red in it) and ILNP Champagne Blush. The latter is maybe atypical for an animal print, wait... what am I saying? I've seen these in hot pink and neon green. The black is LeChat Black Velvet. I used the brush from the bottle for the initial dots, and then a dotting tool for the black parts.


----------



## Monika1 (Dec 3, 2014)

*Style #14... Flowers:*

This is with the base of Zoya Normani. I stamped it with a little orchid flower pattern with MdU Old Pink and tried it at the base by the cuticle on one hand and more centred on the other hand. I'm not sure how I like it better.


----------



## Monika1 (Dec 10, 2014)

*Style #15... Delicate Print:*

For this mani it was time to trim the nails; they were getting a bit long. But I did end up thinking I cut/filed them too short. They'll grow. I used the base of Zoya Carrie Ann, and stamped it with the curlicue image from Bundle Monster 201 with Konad Yellow. Some trouble with positioning the stamp even at this length to get full coverage (my high c-curves give me trouble anyway), but I was pretty happy with my double-stamping to better cover the whole nail. I'll keep practising!


----------



## Monika1 (Dec 18, 2014)

*Style #16... Geometric:*

For this I have ILNP Sirene (H) as a base. I used Pueen08 with Zoya Carly for stamping the geometric pattern. Here are a bunch of photos at different angles to the light to try to catch the multichrome green purple blue and holo nature of Sirene (H).


----------



## Monika1 (Dec 28, 2014)

*Style #17... Glitter:*

For this I used ILNP Cygnus Loop with one glitter per nail (except where there were accidentally two) of OPI I Snow You Love Me. I looked a lot better to the naked eye without camera magnification; I see how much glitter alignment and placement matters to the camera... even the angle of my fingers influences how it appears in the photo. Cygnus Loop looks very different (coppery pink) at directly the opposite angle, but it was hard to photograph to show that angle because my light was coming from the window. The duochrome colours are very well photographed in many blogs, though. I will eventually use the OPI to completely cover a nail; the glitters are very bright, holo, and pretty, and I think it might be a fun disco look for one nail - I haven't found a pic where anyone does that. Some people complain about the consistency of the clear base in that one, but I like it. It's really glossy when it dries, if you spread it all over the nail; but yes, it is thick.


----------

